Pandaily: Chinese EV battery maker REPT to go public overseas

REPT (瑞浦兰钧), a Chinese electric vehicle battery manufacturer backed by leading nickel and stainless steel producer Tsingshan Holding Group (青山控股), has submitted an application for an overseas public listing, Pandaily learned from China Securities Regulatory Commission on December 7.

Founded in 2017, REPT focuses on providing high-quality solutions for new energy vehicle power and smart power energy storage. Its parent company Tsingshan Holding Group is one of the world’s top 500 companies, known as the “Nickel King” in China.

REPT’s main products are square aluminum-shell blade lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries, which are aimed at applications in passenger cars, commercial vehicles, construction machinery and general energy storage.

Before the launch of its overseas listing plan, REPT completed financing totaling RMB2.2 billion ($315 million) in February this year, with automaker SAIC serving as the lead investor. The company’s sales revenue reached RMB2.4 billion ($343 million) last year.

In 2021 alone, REPT successively invested and built production bases in southeastern China’s Foshan, Guangdong Province and eastern China’s Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. The project invested in by REPT in Wenzhou will be completed in 2026 and put into full production in 2027, with a planned production capacity of 100GWh and a planned investment of about RMB30 billion ($4.3) billion. REPT has received various orders from automaker SAIC and Dongfeng Nissan, new material maker GEM, and Kelu Electronics.

In the energy storage sector, REPT has successively developed 50Ah, 72Ah, 100Ah, 150Ah, 205Ah, 230Ah and 280Ah series products, covering the needs of scale energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage and household energy storage. In addition, the company’s new large-scale energy storage product will be launched in the second quarter of 2023.

Cao Hui, chairman of REPT, revealed in September this year that the company’s lithium battery capacity in 2022 is 32 GWh. The company plans to realize 200 GWh lithium battery capacity in 2026, and establish four production bases in China and two overseas production bases. It also set the goal of becoming one of the top four global battery firms, reaching a market share of 10% in 2025.

According to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the shipments of REPT’s energy storage batteries in 2021 ranked in the top three. In June 2022, the loading capacity of REPT’s lithium iron phosphate power battery ranked in the top four. It ranked the 10th in terms of loading capacity of power battery enterprises in China in the first 10 months of 2022,

However, REPT’s market share stands at only 2.2%. In fact, other power battery companies such as Gotion High-Tech, Sunwoda, SVOLT and EVE Energy have market shares of below 5%. Industry leader CATL, however, enjoys a market share of 46.79%.

With REPT launching an IPO plan, the top 10 enterprises with the largest installed power battery capacity in China will compete more in capital markets as well. So far CALB has already been listed in Hong Kong, and SVOLT has applied for an IPO in Shanghai, said Pandaily.